Libertarian Leanings

Origins of the Mar-a-Lago Raid

Do Not Vote for Democrats

Tell me this guy is not evil. pic.twitter.com/vuD9Gc1ttU

— DVZ MΞMΞS (@FreedomInc5) August 30, 2022

"Natural Immunity" is no longer an Anti-Vax Dangerous Theory

Paul D. Thacker, The Disinformation Chronicle:  CDC Now Says COVID-19 Prior Infection Same as Vaccination, Let Us Now Commence the Great Misremembering

Releasing new pandemic guidelines last week, the CDC epidemiologist Greta Massetti divulged to reporters what many experts have long been saying: there is no difference between a COVID-19 vaccine and prior infection.

“Both prior infection and vaccination confer some protection against severe illness,” Massetti told reporters. “And so it really makes the most sense to not differentiate with our guidance or our recommendations based on vaccination status at this time.”

Major media outlets such as NPR, CNN, Washington Post, and the New York Times, dutifully repeated back new statements from CDC officials, without noting they had reported the complete opposite last year: COVID-19 vaccines provided much better protection than prior infection. See this CNN interview last August, for example, where Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy allegedly shot down an “antivaxxer’s claim” about natural immunity.

“We are seeing more and more data that tells us, that while you get some protection from natural protection, it’s not nearly as strong as what you get from the vaccine,” Dr. Murthy told CNN at the time.

Read the rest here.

Original Study Promotes the Irreversible Genital Mutilation of Impressionable Children

Jason Rantz, The Federalist:  After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn’t Fix Depression

The original press release was sent on March 11 and claimed that “gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents caused rates of depression to plummet.”

By April 8, UW Medicine communications staff dramatically changed the claims. 

Independent journalist Jesse Singal started posing questions about the study to UW Communications staff, and one of the study’s authors, who agreed to speak on background, confirmed that some of the data the researchers presented, along with their claims, did not add up.

“Among the kids who went on hormones, there isn’t genuine statistical improvement here from baseline to the final wave of data collection,” Singal wrote on his Substack. “At baseline, 59% of the treatment-naive kids experienced moderate to severe depression. Twelve months later, 56% of the kids on GAM [gender-affirming medicine] experienced moderate to severe depression. At baseline, 45% of the treatment-naive kids experienced self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Twelve months later, 37% of the kids on GAM did.”

In other words, there was no statistically significant improvement. At best, the authors could argue that wrong-sex hormones and trans surgeries did not make these children’s depression worse than it already was.

Read the rest here.

Campaigning Democrat-Style in Wisconsin

Benjamin Yount, Just the News:  Wisconsin places inactive voters back on rolls, key lawmaker calls it 'mind-boggling'

“Why we are returning anyone to the rolls in a state where anyone can vote as long as you have a voter ID is mind-boggling,” said Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls.

The Elections Commission never responded to questions from The Center Square as to how many voters are being reactivated, or how the commission chose the voters being added back to the MyVote system. It did say how many will remain inactive.

Brandtjen asked, too, and said she hasn’t gotten any answers.

“As a legislator, I would think we have the ability to pick up the phone and speak to the commission; instead it’s silence or an email weeks later. The dysfunction is just so real,” Brandtjen added. “The adversarial relation between the administration and the legislature doesn’t inspire confidence in voters.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission in mid-August sent a note to clerks about voter reactivations.

Read the rest here.

Warming, Cooling? Whatever. Fossil Fuels are to Blame. It's the Science!

NEW - Greenland ice sheet gained 7 Gigatons of mass in just one day yesterday — the largest daily gain ever recorded during the summer.https://t.co/2EvukuPcAM pic.twitter.com/eQBd2SJonJ

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 30, 2022

Out of Touch

Madeleine Hubbard, Just the News:  McConnell says election fraud is rare, threats to democracy are not a problem

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said election fraud is rare but "happens occasionally" and that threats to democracy, an important issue to U.S. voters in a recent survey, are not a pressing issue.

In an NBC News poll released Sunday, a plurality of respondents, 21%, ranked "threats to democracy" as the most important issue facing the country. Cost of living came in second, with 16% of voters choosing it first.

When asked about the survey, the Kentucky Republican senator on Monday said: "I do think it’s an important issue. There were those who were trying to prevent the orderly transfer of power for the first time in American history and that was not good."

I believe McConnell is overlooking the first real effort to disrupt the orderly transfer of power, which was undertaken by the Obama administration after the 2016 election.  The baseless Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor FBI investigations crippled the Trump White House and blocked Michael Flynn from assuming his appointed position as National Security Advisor to President Trump.

Read the rest here.

Ron DeSantis Re-Establishes the Florida State Guard

Democrats go apeshit.

Martin Walsh, Conservative Brief:  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces Plans For Private Military Force

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has re-established the Florida State Guard, a state-controlled private military force.

Last I knew, the states were actually government institutions, so writer Martin Walsh's frantic references to a "private military force" are nonsensical.  Are the Florida State Police a private police force?  Logic does not seem to be a strong suit.

The Florida State Guard, which existed during the World War II era, would not be controlled by the Pentagon and would be a separate, non-federal entity.

“Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the reestablishment of the Florida State Guard and introduced the new director of this emergency-focused civilian volunteer force, retired Marine Corps. Lieutenant Colonel Chris Graham. By bringing back the Florida State Guard, Florida now joins 22 other states and territories with state-level defense forces, and many other states have laws on the books allowing for the activation of these organizations. Florida will add 400 members of the Florida State Guard to respond to a projected active hurricane season, and more than 1,200 individuals have already expressed interest in joining. To learn more about this opportunity to serve your fellow Floridians under the direction of Florida’s elected officials,” DeSantis’ office said in a press release.

“The U.S. military has been kicking out great service members over the Biden administration’s unacceptable COVID vaccine mandate, and they are even targeting members of the National Guard. The bureaucrats in D.C. who control our National Guard have also refused to increase the number of guardsmen despite our increasing population, leaving Florida with the second worst National Guardsman to resident ratio. By reestablishing the Florida State Guard under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Graham, we have a great opportunity to expand our capability to help people in times of need or disaster,” DeSantis said.

Meanwhile, Democrats are distraught.  

State Sen. Annette Taddeo tweeted that DeSantis was a “wannabe dictator.”

“Wannabe dictator trying to make his move for his own vigilante militia like we’ve seen in Cuba. Florida is not and will never be Ronnie’s regime,” she said.

“No Governor should have his own handpicked secret police,” Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat who is challenging DeSantis for governor, said.

Which brings me to this:

Second Amendment

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Before the Supreme Court's Heller decision, Democrats and other enemies of freedom argued that the Second Amendment did not confer the right of an individual to keep and bear arms, but instead established the right of the states to maintain well regulated militias.

Obviously, that particular Democrat argument is now inoperable, to borrow a term coined during the Watergate days by the Nixon White House.  In the Heller case, the Supreme Court decided that the Second Amendment did indeed establish an individual's right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.

Now, to the Democrats' chagrin, a plain reading of the Second Amendment seems to establish both:  an individual right to bear arms and a right of the states to establish well regulated militias.

It Takes Political Courage

If Mike Pence is Running for Something, it's Hard to see How this Helps Him

Kelly Sadler, The Washington Times: Sorry, Pence, the FBI is not above reproach or scrutiny

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech in New Hampshire calling on Republicans to stop criticizing the FBI after the unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.

“Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level, and these attacks on the FBI must stop,” Mr. Pence said. “Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as [Democratic] calls to defund the police.”

Mr. Pence thus walked squarely into the liberal media’s trap — validating their narrative that somehow questioning the FBI’s motives is un-American, while whitewashing the agency’s past abuses and undermining any effort for oversight and reform.

How dare anyone criticize the federal government’s premier law enforcement agency and its dedication to justice? Really?

Read the rest here.